Springs are something that all of us are familiar with. We usually see them in pens, toys and other household objects. One of the distinct things that make a spring special is its ability to maintain it’s length even after stretching. It just comes back into its original shape and is fascinating. In this section, the student will get a chance to explore this concept further.
Whenever the spring is stretched, a force is applied to elongate the spring in the direction that is away from the center of the spring. This happens whenever someone or something pulls the spring and this creates a tension in the spring that causes it to snap back toward the center of the spring when the force is released, i.e., when the person or thing holding it lets go. This is the force that the student will calculate using Hooke’s law.
Before deriving the formula for the spring constant, here is a simple explanation of why the spring behaves this way. Spring constant is the numerical representation of the internal property of the spring that enables it to retain its shape and length even after stretching.
Spring constant formula is an integral part of simple harmonic motion. In order to understand the formula for the spring constant, firstly we will look at what SHM or what we call Simple Harmonic Motion is. Once we are thorough with the concept of SHM, we will look at how springs are related to the simple harmonic motion and then finally derive the spring constant formula. The detailed explanation provided here also attempts to elaborate the spring constant formula using Hooke’s Law.
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